Capstan



'UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JESSE REED, OF MARSHFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

CAPSTAN.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 23,499, dated April 5, 1859.

To all whom i may concern:

Be it known that I, Jnssn REED, of lltlarshfield, in the county of Plymouth and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements in Flceters for Ships Capstans, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a view of a capstan with my improved fleeting apparatus attached-Figs. 2, 3 and l details to be referred to hereafter.

I am aware that it has been attempted to fleet the cable on a capstan or windlass, by attaching permanently to the base of the capstan, or the head of the windlass, an inclined ring or portion of a screw, which tended to raise or push along the cable gradually as it was, wound onto the capstan or windlass, and thus avoid the jerk and surge occasioned by the sudden slip of the cable when it was allowed to fleet itself. But this was found not to answer well in practice, as it was necessary that the cable should always be drawn toward the capstan in the same unvarying direction, otherwise the inclined ring would not be available to fleet the cable.

To remedy this difficulty is the object of my present invention which consists in placing at the base of the capstan an inclined movable ring or spiral which may be readily fixed in any required position to suit the direction in which the cable is being drawn toward the capstan.

That others skilled in the art may understand and use my invention I will proceed to`describe the manner in which I have carried out the same.

In the said drawings A represents the deck of a vessel, B the capstan, C the base of metal on which the capstan revolves around a central vertical shaft a. The base C (de- .tached in Fig. 2) has formed in it a circular depression in which are inserted blocks b secured by bolts c. This forms spaces CZ between the blocks, into which the dogs or pawls hung in the bottom of the capstan, drop as it is rotated and prevent it turning but in one direction. A heavy metal ring D (detached in Fig. 3 and shown in red Fig. 2) surrounds the capstan B and rests on the base C. Its lower surface is flat as shown in Fig. 3 while its upper surface is inclined, the ring gradually growing thicker from the point e around the circle to the point f where the thick edge or shoulder is rounded and smoothed off to prevent it from chafing the cable; a pin g on the lower side of the ring enters one of the spaces al in the base C and prevents the ring from being carried around with the capstan, which turns freely within the ring. The capstan B is the frustum of a cone, but its sides do not require to be so much inclined inward toward the top as when the fleeting apparatus is employed, the amount of slope to be given to its sides, as well as the pitch of the incline on the ring D will be governed in a great measure by the kind of work for which the capstan is to be employed.

Operation: The following is the operation of this ieeting apparatus. The capstan B is turned in the direction of its arrow 5, the cable E having the requisite number of turns around the capstan, comes in as indicated by the arrow 6 and the slack is taken up as shown by the arrow 7 the cable runs onto the capstan alongside of the shoulder f and over the lowest portion e of the surface of the ring D, and as the capstan is revolved, the lower coil of the cable rises up on the inclined surface of the ring, and gradually forces the coils above it up the capstan, so that the fleeting of the cable is gradual and continuous, without any sudden surging or jerking.

If it is required to lead the cable to the capstan from any other direction than that shown (in the same horizontal plane) for example at right angles thereto; it is only necessary (before passing the cable around the capstan) to raise the ring D and to turn it one quarter way around on the base C when the pin g will drop into another space (l and hold it in place, the shoulder f as before, coming into line with the point from which the cable is drawn.

If it is required at any time to reverse the pawls beneath the capstan and to turn it in a direction contrary to that indicated by the arrow 5, it will be necessary to have another ring D the incline of which is made in the opposite direction, to take the place of the one D shown in the drawings.

In Fig. 4 is shown a modification of my invention in which the ring D2 may be applied to a capstan having the ordinary ar- Y rangement of pawls around its periphery at the base, this ring being so formed with a rim s projecting inward at the top as to completely cover and protect the pawls of the capstan. To the top of this ring on one side is secured the double incline Which serves the purpose of fleeting the cable in a manner similar to the inclined surface of the ring D, but With this advantage, that as the inclines on the ring D2 are much shorter and occupy but a portion of the Whole circle, the cable may he lead to the* capstan from more points of the compass Without moving the ring,` around the capstamvand as the inclines are similar on both sides the direction in Which the capstan is moved may be reversed Without having to change the ring` Vas in the former case. 'f

If either of these devices he applied to a Windlass, the ring may be held to the head of the Windlaes by suitable hooks. 

